Thursday, January 26, 2012

Joshua Merritt said he had no reason to be suspicious when one of his friends texted him, asking him to hang out with two other teenagers they both knew.

But after Merritt, 17, arrived at the home of one of the boys in Chicago’s East Beverly neighborhood Dec. 23, he realized his friends weren’t simply looking to have a good time.

The three teens, who are white, allegedly put a noose around the neck of Merritt, who is black, and hurled racial epithets at him before one of the boys held a knife to his throat and threatened to kill him, police and Merritt said Thursday.The teens were apparently upset about Merritt’s relationship with one of the boys’ female cousins, police said.

“I feel they were being serious, and that if I didn’t get out of the house when I did, I might not even be here,” Merritt said Thursday, sitting on a couch in his family’s living room in the city’s Morgan Park neighborhood. “I might be dead.” Two of the alleged attackers, ages 17 and 18, were charged Jan. 10 with committing a hate crime, unlawful restraint and battery, police said.One of those teens, Matthew Herrmann, 18, of the 4200 block of West 126th Street in Alsip, was charged as an adult, police said.

He is free on bond, according to court records. The 17-year-old was charged as a juvenile. The third alleged attacker, 16, was charged as a juvenile with committing a hate crime, unlawful restraint, aggravated battery and aggravated assault for allegedly pulling a knife in the incident, police said. The attack occurred at the 16-year-old’s home in the 1600 block of West 100th Place, police said.

His mother holds an administrative position in the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, prompting Cook County prosecutors to request that the case against the boy be handled by the Illinois attorney general’s office to avoid a conflict of interest, said Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Lisa Madigan said that request is still under review. Merritt said he and the 16-year-old’s cousin were friends but were not dating. He said he went to the 16-year-old boy’s house after one of the teens invited him over. Merritt, a senior at Brother Rice High School, said everything seemed normal when he first arrived. He said he and the others were talking about music before the others started using racist terms, including the N-word, against him. Then one of the teens approached from behind and slipped a rope fashioned into a noose around his neck, he said.After getting out of the noose, Merritt and police said he tried to escape, but the others blocked the doors. “I couldn’t believe that they were doing this,” said Merritt, wearing a maroon Brother Rice jacket over his white shirt and black tie. “I just (felt) trapped inside there.”The situation seemed to calm down a bit, Merritt said. He said he told the others, “Guys, stop. Please. This isn’t funny.”That’s when one of the teens put the noose around his neck a second time, he said. The attack stopped when one of the teens got a phone call, giving Merritt a chance to leave, he said. A man who answered the door at the house listed as Herrmann’s home in court records said he didn’t know Herrmann. Herrmann graduated from Brother Rice last year, and the 17-year-old suspect is a student there, authorities said. A school official told WGN-TV that the boy had been removed from the school, but it wasn’t clear if he had been suspended or expelled. Merritt, who hopes to study graphic design after graduating, said he has never been harassed because of his race before and that they the incident doesn’t change his perception of his high school.

“I would just like to say that Brother Rice really does try to instill love for other people and tolerance, and that these people don’t represent Brother Rice,” he said. “They didn’t receive the message.”

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Antifascists around Chicago have really pissed off white supremacists these past few years. For example; Tim Nelson of the Creativity Movement(TCM)just got kicked out of his apartment(5655 n Menard #2) due to a flier mission and alleged direct action against his property. Because of things likes this, we have gotten tons of great hate mail. But even better than the emails are the phone calls. Our hotline, originally created to contact us during the 2010 white pride march, has been a great source of entertainment. After a hard day of confronting nazis or getting them kicked out of their houses and organizations it's always nice to kick back and enjoy friendly phone call from Merton Gary,James Logsdon(1233 Holiday RD Bloomington, IL 61704), Joshua Steever "Hatchet"(right) or any of the other dumb ass boneheads who want to stupidly give us empty death threats. We enjoy them so much we decided to share a few recent ones with you. Hope you likez!

About

Contact: southsideara (at) riseup.net

TORCH Points of Unity:

1. We disrupt fascist and far right organizing and activity.

2. We don’t rely on the cops or courts to do our work for us. This
doesn’t mean we never go to court, but the cops uphold white supremacy
and the status quo. They attack us and everyone who resists oppression.
We must rely on ourselves to protect ourselves and stop the fascists.

3. We oppose all forms of oppression and exploitation. We intend to do
the hard work necessary to build a broad, strong movement of oppressed
people centered on the working class against racism, sexism, nativism,
anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and discrimination
against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest, and the most oppressed
people. We support abortion rights and reproductive freedom. We want a
classless, free society. We intend to win!

4. We hold ourselves accountable personally and collectively to live up to our ideals and values.

5. We not only support each other within the network, but we also
support people outside the network who we believe have similar aims or
principles. An attack against one is an attack against all.